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O3b Networks: A Satellite Company Connected in the Cloud, Empowered by Microsoft Dynamics AX, SAGlobal and SaaSplaza

O3b chose to go with Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud. This solution was implemented and deployed by SAGlobal and the Cloud environment was provided by SaaSplaza.

Dynamics AX was the right ERP-Finance solution for O3b’s diverse and highly custom needs, and the Cloud was the right fit to address O3b’s “competing needs” of making scalability easy while keeping costs predictable.

The Company

O3b Networks is a Global Satellite Services Provider currently deploying a next-generation satellite network that combines the reach of satellite with the speed of fiber.

Its stated goal is to help realize a world “…where high speed connectivity is always within reach.” O3b serves a rapidly growing market and is in turn a rapidly growing company with offices and staff all over the world—gateway locations in Brazil, Greece, Hawaii, Portugal, and elsewhere—and with more team members and locations being added regularly. For O3b, the sky is no longer the limit.

The Challenge

The good news was that O3b was growing, and fast. The challenge this good news created was that immediately after commercial launch of the company, O3b found itself in dire need of an ERP system that would address its growing and global needs—a solution that would be readily available to its worldwide team, and also be able to streamline and unite worldwide processes under one solution.

Additionally, it required a solution flexible enough to accommodate the shifting requirements within the satellite services space (where new rules and regulations are the norm, not the exception), and also able to work perfectly with the Microsoft systems O3b had in place. Perhaps most critically, O3b needed a solution that would be as scalable as its business—future growth being essentially assured—and that could also deliver cost predictability. One of O3b’s most pressing business needs was to be able to handle its tremendous growth without adding tremendous costs.

The Solution

O3b went with Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud. The solution was implemented and deployed by SAGlobal, a Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle Partner, and winner of Microsoft’s Partner of the Year award in 2012 for Professional Services. The Cloud environment would be provided by SaaSplaza, another leading Microsoft Partner, having won Microsoft’s ERP Hosting Partner of the Year in 2011.

AX was the right ERP-Finance solution for O3b’s diverse and highly custom needs, and the Cloud was the right fit to address O3b’s “competing needs” of making scalability easy while keeping costs predictable. And there was no better Partner than SAGlobal for making it all come together.

SAGlobal’s global presence and AX expertise is unparalleled, and can provide local consultants in most every place out of which O3b was operating as well.

Additionally, SAGlobal was able to keep implementation costs low through a hybrid on/off shore deployment model. It tapped local “on-shore” expertise for specific business knowledge and financial localizations, and tapped its offshore team in India for more standard implementation tasks. And with all processes and projects managed at the local level, maintaining complete communication with O3b’s local teams and delivering seamless deployment of each instance was assured.

The Results

With more than 100 seats up and running all over the world—both Advanced Management and Light portal users—O3b has a flexible, scalable solution that integrates perfectly with its existing Microsoft solutions, and that addresses its myriad, complex financial requirements, helping to keep employees and critical data connected and consistently updated.

“We selected SAGlobal and SaaSplaza to be our partners in the development of a cloud solution. Using Dynamics AX ‘in the cloud’ ensures scalability, development and support for our global workforce as our business grows, all at a reduced time and infrastructure cost when compared to an in-house solution,” says Bob Scholz, Vice President, Accounting, O3b.

And by choosing to run its entire solution in the Cloud with SaaSplaza, O3b enjoyed the following benefits:

Freedom from infrastructure—no server hardware to maintain or power (a cost that would have come in in the tens-of-thousands).

Endless scalability—with its solution completely in the Cloud, adding new users anywhere in the world is both easy and cost-effective.

Support and service—“SAGlobal and SaasPlaza continue to work closely with O3b to support and build our business using the AX solutions we need, when we need it,” says Scholz.

About SaaSplaza

SaaSplaza is #1 in Cloud Dynamics, worldwide. With hundreds of ISVs and hundreds of Partners, SaaSplaza has both the solutions and expertise to address the Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM needs of most every vertical market. And with data centers and personnel across the globe—Amsterdam, China, California, Singapore, Germany, Virginia—SaaSplaza is the only truly global Cloud company.